Every Little [bit less] Helps: TFTD 18.2.09

Here’s my Thought for the Day from this morning’s Breakfast Show on Radio Bristol.

I recently watched a programme presented by David Attenborough. At the beginning of it, he stood in front of a huge King James Bible and read from Genesis – God said unto them, Be fruitful, replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over it. ‘That made it clear,’ said Sir David, ‘According to the Bible humanity could exploit the natural world as they wished.’ Well, that’s one way you could read it. But it’s not the way most people I know understand those verses. The translation I prefer reads like this: ‘God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image and reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish, the birds, the cattle, even the Earth itself.’ Care for the environment. Use it for the good it can produce. But don’t exploit it. Of course, that’s not the way things always are. Only yesterday, Graham Torrington refereed a heated debate about the amount of unnecessary packaging still being used on the things we buy in supermarkets, and the monetary and environmental cost of this. For some, this was something that should have been dealt with a long time ago, while others couldn’t see what real difference it made if their cabbage was shrink wrapped or not. Set against industrial carbon emissions, buying loose potatoes feels like a drop in the environmental ocean. Perhaps it is. But missed by all taking part in yesterday’s debates were the words of Professor Jacqueline McGlade, head of the European Environment Agency – ‘People power is at the heart of beating climate change. The key to protecting and enhancing our environment is in the hands of the many, not the few.’ So, next time you reach for that bag of potatoes just remember, Every little bit less helps.

1 comment

You say: “Well, that’s one way you could read it. But it’s not the way most people I know understand those verses. The translation I prefer reads like this: ‘God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image and reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish, the birds, the cattle, even the Earth itself.’ Care for the environment. Use it for the good it can produce. But don’t exploit it”.

Ok, that’s a positive translation. But for me that’s kinda the problem too, it’s your “preferred” translation, but yet the bible contains the word of god and claim to be the ultimate truth. If the words of god is the ultimate truth they shouldn’t be open to hundreds of different interpretations, even if only positive, something we know isn’t the case at all. For me that resembles something imperfect and inconsistent, especially put in the context of a supreme creator, the one you call god.